Worst years for music

[jumpshift]

I agree with people who say 1995-2002-present have been the worst years in music. But alternative music in the late 80's/early 90's was very very good. Synth-pop was very much still alive and well. Great under-rated alternative bands like the stone roses, jesus & mary chain, catherine wheel, kitchens of distinction, slowdive, thrashing doves, the bible, ocean blue, sisters of mercy, and many others were gaining airplay on alternative stations. Oh and let's not forget MTV's 120 minutes. Too bad i never got a chance to watch it in it's prime. Grunge was also very good, but i get tired of people saying how it changed music forever and put the 80's to rest. The 80's and early 90's will always be my favorite period for music. I also like a lot of music from the 60's.

[onlytranslating]

It's really difficult to answer this question because you used the phrase modern music. Due to my age, I would like to pick 1984-1990 for popular music (because this era really was horrible, there's no argument against it). Although, the popular rock music that's been released over the past few years is almost as bad. There's always been great music -- I can name a bunch of great acts from every era in the past 50 years.

[Randall Roq]

It's got to be the early to mid 70's! People, that's what spawned Punk and New Wave in the first place. Jesus, Am radio back then was a horrific jumble of Arena Rock, Little River Band, Osmonds, Starland Vocal Band and Debbie Boone.

Trust me- I was in the shit, it was rough.



"...the oclelot must kill every day to live"

[General Boy]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by edisonoside[/i]
<br>So true.

You should see me trying to listen to music on the radio these days. I'm constantly with my hand on the dial and to no avail trying to avoid one bad station after another...Thank GOD for CD's and tapes!! My radio days are truly over.
[/quote]
I don't think there's any disagreeing on this point by anyone, but are you sure we aren't all looking at this through some degree of rose-colored glasses? I seem to recall that even in SoCal, outside of KROQ and 91X, the other 95% of the dial was complete shit! Even some of the KROQ stuff was crap. Unless you had the benefit of one of these stations, WLIR, CFNY, or whatever, I bet the radio was just as crappy as it is now. Granted, many of us DID have the benefit of at least one station...but it wasn't like the airwaves were pouring out with our greatest hits of the era. I think our minds tend to consolidate the good stuff.
[/quote]

Great point.

I'm not old enough to have been a KROQ junkie back in the day, but I know that the majority of stuff that was being played on that station did not acheive mainstream success. KROQ fans have a myopic view of that time period, citing singles as "hits" that never even came anywhere close to being hits on a national level.

Take a look at the Billboard charts from the early '80s and you'll see exactly what I mean. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking the biggest hit single of the first half of the '80s was fricking "Physical" by Olivia Newton John. "PHYSICAL"!!!

As for the thread topic? I think all periods have their share of good and bad music, you just have to know where to look. It becomes harder over time because the good, interesting, creative stuff gets shoved further underground. I mean can you imagine "Sgt. Pepper" or "Abbey Road" coming out now? No one would know what the heck to do with it. The labels certainly wouldn't know how to market it.

The bands that are both creative *and* commercial these days are slim to none. Mabe it's because the pop world and its fans have remained largely stagnant over the years. They want more of the same year after year.

Having said that, I do tend to agree with the assessment that the mid to late '90s were pretty low. Things have perked up a bit in the last few years though.

[General Boy]

[quote][i]Originally posted by react010[/i]
<br>I reckon the years 1985-1989 were the worst of them all !!
By 1985 the Wave, Disco and Italo had 'died' in the charts....
And between 1985 and 1989 there was (IMHO) a gap which left a very curious mix of musicstyles. There was all sorts in the charts, and even beyond the charts...most artists didn't know whether to go left or right.... They had lost their direction i think.
House music wasn't around in those years...the 80's (New-Wave) sound had gone in a way, and a lot of artists lost their identitty i think..
After 1989-1990 a whole new dance cultered style emmerged and (new) artists found there way to the charts and the 'hearts' of the people again...But those 4 years between 1985 and 1989 were the weirdest of them all in my opinion.
[/quote]

You know what? You make an excellent case here. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a small handful of bands from the late '80s that really interest me. It was post-new wave, synths went digital, alternative hadn't yet hit its full stride, there was a lot of generic pop techno...hmmm....

[General Boy]

Count me in with the folks who see a correlary between new wave and disco. A good chunk of new wave bands actually liked disco and tried to emulate that in their own brand of dance music. And keep in mind that folks like Giorgio Moroder had a major hand in both disco *and* new wave.

There's a famous story about Brian Eno from his days working with David Bowie. During the recording of "Low," I believe, Eno brought two records in to Bowie and told him that these were going to be the "sound of the future." One was Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" and the other was Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express."

He was right...at least for a while.

[ca135805]

Pre 1975 Little interest to me (or anyone on this forum?).

1975 – 1985 Golden years (enough said).

1986-1990 A depression with the emergence of mainstream rock (eg Europe’s “The Final Countdown”). REM etc.. bores me to tears (anyone else?). The growing Eurodisco/House stuff was the only shining light but it received little attention. The Nirvana/Grunge period was the absolute low. Deee-Lite signaled a change was in the air.

1990’s Generally quite good. I believe the abundance of CD reissues was a huge shot in the arm for the music industry, broadening out the market from it’s long focused top 40 format (don’t forget a lot of our fave early 80’s albums were deleted and forgotten a year after their initial release). MP3/Filesharing had merely been a continuation of this.

2003 – This rapper/ringtone crap really annoys me.

[randy]

Hell-nothing to add--just thought it would be interesting what the new kids on the block have to say....

[Mechi]

1995-2002

And this comes from someone who grew upin that era.

"To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under heaven."

[8Tees]

1995-Present. Boring corporate music.

[Darvoset]

i'm with the majority on 95 to 02 being a deadzone for music. the only new bands i got into at that time was VAST, Snake River Conspiracy and Lusicious Jackson. Other than that, not much came out of that time period for me. And of course i agree with 78/85 being the best, most diverse time in music history. 64/71 was another brilliant time in music, with beatles and stones ruling in that period.

[jumpshift]

I was thinking a little more along the lines of 1997-Present. How does that sound?

[coop41]

2006? There just hasn't been much that has come out this year that has been stuck in my CD player or on my ipod as far as new CD's are concerned. [:(]

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[newwavepunkgirl]

Probably 2003 and up although that said there is always something good out there to listen to!

Devolution is real

[plagiarism]

I voted for 1955-1963. While we all remember the positive influences of artists like Little Richard and Elvis, that was also a time of Pat Boone, Andy Williams, and tons of pre-packaged groups designed to soften the edges of rock and roll. That safe, mellow music irritates me more than grunge or gangsta rap, which I've been able to tune out. Thank God for the British Invasion, or else New Wave might have never happened.